Dancing
by MeredithBrody
Summary: After the explosion, Brody not only checks up on a friend but relives what they were doing a few minutes before. (Episode tag for S01E11 "Baitfish" - mild Brody/Pride implications)


**So, as usual I wrote an episode tag for tonight. This one is largely for Pink, who suggested it all before the end of the first adverts. Hope this is what you imagined hun!  
Shin xx**

* * *

_Brody was glad, in the end, that they had all been asked to come along to this charity function. She had never really enjoyed these before, but she enjoyed the people she worked with more now, and the fact that Laurel and Orion had come along too made it seem even better for her. She was watching as Wade pulled LaSalle off to dance to the current song, only after Pride had vehemently denied her once. Apparently, that wasn't getting Brody out of it. "Come on you." He motioned to her with a grin then poked at her shoulder. This time it was her turn to shake her head._

_"Hey, why me?" She asked, because if he was going to make her dance she was going to get a reason out of it. Especially since he had just turned down their medical examiner, not even a minute earlier._

_"Because I need someone to dance with." He said simply and she shook her head, Laurel's laughter told her that she had seen her father's attempt to get Brody to dance, but that didn't mean she was going to give in, not this easily at least._

_"You said no to Wade!" She pointed out, because it was still going over her head that if he'd wanted to dance he should have gone with the member of their party who had actually clearly wanted to dance. _

_"She suits dancing with Christopher more. He can keep up with her." He nodded over in their direction and Brody laughed a little when it was obvious that Wade was the one leaving their teammate in the dust despite being a few years his senior. "She'll ask me again for the next song. I'll still say no, you can't though." Pride said, and she didn't miss the hypocrisy in his statement._

_"Not fair." Brody grumped, and that caused everyone around them to laugh. Even she had to let a slight chuckle out, because it seemed so like this team that they were arguing about dancing. Nothing more serious than that. _

_"Don't care about being fair." He gave her a disarming smile and she swore she'd heard him use the same line on their suspects during interrogations before now. At least he was using it with her in a more fun situation._

_She just pouted and looked at one of the remainder of their party hoping one of them would save her. Laurel was too busy laughing, and it was obvious both Sebastian and Orion were trying to stay out of it."You're mean."_

_"Sure." He nodded, reaching out to her hand, then when she took his he turned to Laurel, who was clearly still grinning and gave her another father question. "You'll be alright?"_

_"We'll be fine dad, have fun." Laurel laughed and took Orion off in their own direction, leaving her and Pride barely on the dance floor. Mostly they were using it as a reason to keep an unobstructed view of LaSalle and Wade, who were both up near the band much further forward than they were. _

_The longer she watched them the more obvious it was that LaSalle was trying to make it up as he went along, and he had a surprising lack of rhythm. What she was more surprised about was that Pride clearly could dance. Something he'd managed to hide well away. At least she'd never known that about him. "OK, now I see what you mean about Wade. I don't think I could keep up with her." She commented innocently, but she didn't miss the light laugh from Pride._

_"I would pay to see that." He commented quietly, and she burst out laughing. That had been the least expected thing he'd ever said to her, but it made her slightly relieved to know that they were all close enough that he didn't mind making those jokes to her._

_"Perv." She teased back, the only thing she could have _seriously_ replied. She couldn't stop laughing at it though, because it had just been so unexpected._

_"I'm not going to deny that. You left the door for it open." He had a point, she had left herself open to that kind of comment by the way she'd phrased what she'd said. Maybe she'd done it on purpose. She wasn't interested in going over her own motivations quite so closely right now._

_"I did. I admit." She laughed again and refocused her attention back on their friends, purely because it was so damn funny to watch LaSalle being schooled on dance. She was enjoying it more than she probably should have done._

* * *

Was that all really only a few hours ago. She hadn't done much since then, at least she felt like she hadn't. She knew that was partially because she hadn't had that much time to do anything. She still felt she should have done more for Pride and for Laurel. Orion was doing the hard bit right now, and it was obvious that she needed to be here. Pride wanted to be here with his daughter, which meant he needed their team to do what they were good at.

She had wanted to come and check on them though, she'd brought some food for them both, and had picked up a change of clothes from the office. Pride obviously had plenty of things there, and Laurel would no doubt fit her things. After handing the bag to Laurel, who looked thankful to be able to change, and a nurse showed her to where she could change properly and have a quick shower.

"What do we know?" Pride asked, looking up at her seriously, and it was obvious that he was trying to hold on to his professionalism more for himself than for her. Possibly more for Laurel too, even though she wasn't there right that moment.

"Nothing yet. Wade, LaSalle and Sebastian are all working." They had all wanted to check up on them, and see that they were OK. Especially since they knew that Orion was in a serious condition. She had been the one who was easiest to be spared for a few minutes right now, so she'd been happy to do it. "I volunteered to bring you both some clothes since they had it covered."

"Thanks." He tried to smile, but it fell flat. She hadn't even expected him to try, not right now.

After another second of standing there she just sat down beside him. It was hard for all of them to distance what had happened with what they'd been doing just before it. "Doesn't seem like it was only four hours ago that we were laughing at LaSalle's dancing, does it?" She asked.

"It doesn't. Make sure everyone is working on this." Again he tried to take control, of himself and of everything else.

"Plame came in and everything." She looked over at him, then shifted slightly in her seat and reached out, placing her hand on top of one of his. Trying to give him just a small measure of comfort. "Everyone is on this Dwayne. Don't worry. Orion's doing the hard part right now. We're all keeping him in our thoughts while we do this."

"I'll come in when I know Laurel is OK." There was no real inch of wiggle room in that statement, no matter what she said, he was going to be coming in. She wanted him to know that wasn't strictly necessary if he needed to stay here.

She smiled, always being bowled over by his dedication. If he didn't want to come in though, she was sure they could solve this. "No rush. You made sure we all knew what we needed to do." She squeezed his hand, and was grateful when she felt him squeeze back. Four hours. That was the difference between then and now.

* * *

_No matter how long Brody watched, she didn't see any signs of LaSalle actually knowing what he was doing. It was actually fairly obvious that he had no idea whatsoever. It was slightly endearing to watch. Like something she could tease a brother about when they next argued. She was going to file it away as knowledge she would remember. "Can LaSalle actually dance?"_

_"I've not seen any evidence of that yet." Pride laughed, turning her round on the spot again so it at least looked like they were attempting to keep up with the dance rather than just spying on their friends._

_"Neither have I, but you've known him a lot longer than I have." She smiled, then her eyes fell on another pair from their party dancing. It was obvious that Pride like Orion, and it was even more obvious that Orion was head over heels for Laurel, so Brody nodded in their direction and smiled. "Laurel and Orion look comfortable."_

_"She is actually good at picking boys." If that was all he had to say on that subject, he definitely liked Orion. She was in her 30s and her father still had more to say about the boys she would bring home._

_"Probably gets it from her mother." Brody laughed, shaking her head gently. That was surely one of the only explanations. Pride's smile was actually even bigger than she would have expected after such an innocuous comment. _

_That was when he leant in almost directly against her ear and whispered. "That almost sounded like a compliment."_

_"From me? Never." She grinned, again, maybe she had meant that too. She'd need to look at her own motivations for these comments at a later date. It was then that she realised the song was coming to an end, and she knew they'd need to return to where Sebastian was before LaSalle and Wade got there. "We should probably go and stand with Sebastian before this all finishes."_

_"Save him from being the next victim." Pride agreed, but that wasn't exactly what she had had in mind._

_"Or watch him become the next victim." She smirked and allowed him to lead her back to where their friend was standing just watching everyone else dancing and looking quite comfortable doing so. She admitted, she wanted to watch him try and turn Wade down. It would be amusing to her. She was _not_ a nice person sometimes, though it was clear Pride had had a similar thought. That should not have made her feel as good as it did._


End file.
